In the past few days, President Cyril Ramaphosa has addressed the nation twice on the Enyobeni Tavern tragedy in which 21 East London teenagers died – in his weekly message on Monday and at the mass funeral of the Enyobeni victims on Wednesday. The Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in SA (SAAPA SA) welcomes his interventions but believes the President has failed to show clear and robust leadership by offering a way forward that will guarantee a reduction in alcohol-related harm in our country going forward.
SAAPA SA, other civil society organisations and public health researchers have for decades been calling for more effective alcohol control measures to protect the health, safety and well-being of our people. In response, it must be acknowledged, government did take positive, though erratic, steps in the period 2010 to 2017.
In 2010, South Africa endorsed the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol which was adopted at the…
